nysalogs | ain't seen the light since we started this band ( open )

"You're not wrong, but those two were at least following their book." As much as he might've railed against a religious education and told a priest and nun that there was no God, but certainly a God of Death? Sister Helen and Father Maxwell had taken good care of him, even when he'd refused to stay adopted and leave them.

"Nah, I'm good thanks." Duo shifts to the edge of the roof and lets himself slide off feet first once Jim has the bundle, landing easily and indicating everything was good to go. "The tools are her dads." Meaning they should probably leave them, though, now that they aren't in the middle of the woods with Duo more on edge than he was now... he's curious to chat a little.

"You got a minute? My stomach is dying and if you aren't busy I'd be interested in what you've noticed on all of this."

Jim hands the tools over to their little eavesdropper, introducing himself after her curious look. Nice to meet you Smallnpc, etc.

"Sure," he says to Duo, once disengaged. "I think I've even figured out the currency situation by now and everything."

Honestly, Jim's a quick enough numbers-cruncher he understood the economics on a technical level pretty much instantly, but it's still a pain in the ass remembering he actually has to pay for things. y u no adapt to sensible socialism, El Nysa.

"It's not really super difficult just.. different from my world, really." Credits versus silver, as it went. Usually on L2 it was a lot of trading goods one for the other and that lot, though, and so the bartering process here in Wyver is a little bit easier because of it. He's well aware that's not the absolute usual for everyone, at least, happy enough to help if Jim were to have an issue along the way. Himself.. he's got a few mercenary missions under his belt with Aranea that's stacked up a bit of gold for him, so there's always that.

"They were called credits instead of silver there but the system was pretty much the same... Kinda preferred to barter with things plus credits on my colony but what can a guy do.." He shrugs, ever easy going about it, leading them away and toward food.

"And anyway, I just wanted away from prying ears."

United Earth's post-scarcity economy, which is effectively socialism, does not translate well to ... anything. Jim just shrugs back, because he's discovered already that trying to explain it even to other refugees just ends up sounding clumsy and weird. (But he could yell about it for ages. What monsters demand ransom for food and shelter and basic necessities!! This is a terrible way to live!!)

"What's on your mind?"

Well.. probably a good thing he didn't rant to Duo. The street kid in him would automatically default to 'just steal it' and actually mean it. Just because he had the means to buy things now doesn't mean he won't show people ways to get one over on the man if he has to.

Either way, he tucks his hands in to his pockets as Jim asks him what's on his mind, chewing his lip for a moment as he debates how to put it.

"This.. the whole place and the rhetoric going around puts me on edge. Even worse knowing that they're all around listening for shit even if no one's rioting anymore." There's a hard look at a lingering villager, though it's unclear if it's a previous beef with this man in particular or if Duo is telling him without the words to move the hell along.

"I just got out of a war and I don't want any stake in anything further, but it looks like we're going to have forced hands if this keeps up."

Jim is a calm presence, offering no hard looks or standoffish aura. Oh, to be an angry teenager, again. (Though he's picked up on by now that Duo has Seen Some Shit. Child soldier? That's.. not great.)

"We were brought here to live, and to hopefully influence this world for the better," he says. At least, that's the line he was given. "It's clear to me - I think it's clear to just about everybody - that picking a side in this conflict is untenable. There's nothing about either that will be a positive influence. So what are our choices?"

That sounds like a rhetorical question.

"Doing nothing, I've always felt, isn't really a choice. Neutrality is only truly neutral in a vacuum, or if the neutral party is able to take on a mediator role. And this isn't a vacuum."

"At this point.. who would choose either side fully?" He knows some people have. Duo has asked as much on the communicators, questioned whether people had chosen sides. Predictably, some had thrown themselves to one side whole-heatedly, for some reason or another, while others still remained suspicious of both. Duo had chosen Wyver to live in mainly because the people reminded him a bit more of home, constantly ready to stomp one person out to climb the ladder of life just that one rung further. It's a dog eat dog kind of thing, of course, but...

Well, maybe he's wired that way. He's not sure, at this point, he wants to dig in to why certain things attract him places.

"Yet, at least.." If there's unrest brewing, who knew what could happen. Duo knows all too well how dangerous a power vacuum is, has seen it with his own eyes. "Considering.. it might be what whoever it is is trying to do."

"If war is inevitable, we can't expect every refugee to pick a side, or pretend to pick a side, like plenty of us have been doing." Alright, that's not exactly what people working on these problems have been telling him, but he ain't dim. "There's either going to have to be a serious, aggressive push for peace by natives on both sides and refugees alike, or we're going to have to absent ourselves-- which brings a whole host of new problems."

The implied power vacuum, for one, and for another - who knows what the winner of the inevitable conflict might choose to do about them after.

"Not many other options. Doubtful they'd let us build our own place and keep it successful, at that." He'd be shocked if even the rumbles of it wouldn't be crushed down. It seems inevitable that this group of refugees who seemed to come from more advanced civilizations and the lot would eventually benefit both Olympia and Wyver in a very big way. However.. with all the anti-refugee sentiment, taking all that talent to their own space?

Would be great asset to them, and a great threat to Wyver and Olympia.

"No one's going to like a new settlement. Most of the people I've met that are refugees are.. from way more advanced places technologically. If we band together and get things off the ground that's a massive threat to the status quo here."

"Who says all the natives like the status quo? Why can't we actually start teaching people and introducing concepts like democracy? It'd be dangerous, sure, but this whole thing has proven that, at least in Wyver, some natives are against this pointless feud. The biggest obstacle seems to be that the Natha don't want us to blow our cover."

And legit, w h y. Jim is so skeptical, and maybe it's unfair, but he's been dicked around by an omnipotent multidimensional being before, and his trust for this kind of thing is basically at zero.

"You think their kings and queens and the lot are gonna take too friendly to that?" He knows the answer, just like they both do, so it's a bit rhetorical, but Duo can't help himself. Pushing a population through the progression from a ruler to an election wasn't exactly what he's ever done before, either.

"I don't disagree, for the record. Just don't think my specialty is really dethroning kings and the lot. I can do that with military posturing pretty efficiently, though." It helped when he'd had a huge, hard to defeat robot, too.

"I wonder about the Natha, too. There has to be a reason that they're so hell bent on keeping what's going on between us and them, the question is more what it is and how possibly terrible it is."

"If we're heading to war anyway, better it be over something less stupid than 'your brand of nationalism is expressed differently than mine'," Jim says with something of a sigh. He's not quite a pacifist - he should be, maybe, but he's seen too much to not know conflict is inevitable, sometimes.

"I understand the desire to keep natives from total panic and chaos, but there's a wide gap between pulling the curtains up for everything and letting us have a more sensible cover story. They've got all kinds of power but are using it on the weirdest details."

"Or we could prevent war in the first place. Considering the advancements here I think war here would be a bit personal and bloody." AKA not exactly what Duo wanted to deal with when it came down to it. He isn't an up close and personal battle kind of guy, prefers a bit of sabotage or just a sneak attack if it's at all possible. Sure, it isn't exactly the honorable way to fight, but it's worked and kept him alive.

"Exactly why it's suspect and we might do well to keep the Natha happy for now." It's not ideal - he'd like to pull the curtains up himself, if he's honest, but seeing as they have a bunch of their sleeping friends in tubes up there... "They do have a lot of leverage asleep in tubes."

Jim makes a sound of agreement. He's aggressively optimistic in a stubborn way, wanting to avoid war at all costs, but he's not an idiot. It would be wildly foolish to assume it simply won't ever come.

"Yeah." Something he's considered at length. "That's why I'm not petitioning them for answers. I'd rather be wrong, honestly."

"Yeah. Until I have everyone awake and gathered up they're safe." Which is probably a smart choice on the part of the Natha. Duo, despite his size and easy ability to smile and laugh, was probably one of the more vindictive and merciless Gundam pilots of the five. Perhaps something to do with where and what he was raised in, but either way it hasn't wounded him too badly so far, so there's no way he's turning back from it for the moment. The Natha and whatever was going on with them would stay however they wanted util he could ensure his friends' safety.

Once that was done.. well. They'd put their heads together. "Still, it pings every red flag I know from the war I came from. There's too many unknowns for my tastes."

"I also wanna know why all these people who are so proud and all that good shit don't seem to know their history? Like.. how?"

ain't seen the light since we started this band ( open )

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